Slayer
by Kissa-chan
Summary: COMPLETE FFX and FFVII (Rikku and Vincent) Rikku becomes a vampire slayer. Will meeting Vincent change her gradually freezing soul? Please read and review!
1. Act I

Standard disclaimers apply.  
  
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A blur of blankness swiftly approached. Rikku spun, dropping to the balls of her feet and kicking out one leg, tripping up the dark form. It went sprawling foreword, landing in a cloud of dust on the creaky wooden floor. She shot back to her feet, one leg slipping back, knees bent, and ready for additional combat.  
  
A sharp noise filled the musty air of the ancient house as the black cloaked figure drew two short curved swords. "Bitch," he hissed, light from the moon casting a silvery glow on his extended fangs. He had recovered his balance and was circling her warily. The impatience that his first act had shown was now faded, replaced by an eternal patience.  
  
Rikku braced herself mentally, prepared for him to do anything. Her booted feet scuffed the wooden floor as she matched him step for step. The vampire-type fiend had been alive for a long time. He was at the advantage, but Rikku swore she would be damned before she let him know that.  
  
"Age and wisdom will always triumph over youthful vigor and immaturity," he hissed. His voice grated against Rikku's ears like nails tearing through a chalk board. It sent shivers up her bare arms and made her wish that she had brought earplugs.  
  
"Dream on," she said sharply, her teeth gritted against the unwanted noise. She saw him move, once more a blur of speed. This time the deadly glint of silver came flashing towards her at the same time. She took two quick steps to the left and moved her targe in front of the blades.  
  
The knife lodged solidly into the armor. Rikku twisted her arm, yanking one of his deadly blades out of his grasp and narrowly avoiding the other as it came towards her in a wide deadly arc. She felt a thin trickle of blood trail across her stomach. She didn't look down to check the injury as they broke apart once more. Instead she kept her eyes locked on his red orbs and felt the wound with her stomach. It wasn't serious, barely deeper then a paper cut.   
  
"You missed, you know," she said cheerily, knowing how irritating a careless tone could be in battle.  
  
"A mistake that I won't repeat," the vampire acknowledged.   
  
Rikku tilted her head towards him in an open invitation for him to try his best. "You will certainly TRY not to miss again," she said, putting an emphasis on the word try. "However, I grow bored with defense...." she let her voice trail off and wiggled her fingers to bleed off tension.  
  
"You would attack?" the vampire asked in amusement. "Truly, this is something that I must see." He stopped circling and flung his cloak to the side, replacing his remaining blade in a sheath at his waist. "Come when you wish to die," he offered gallantly.  
  
Rikku stepped back, raising one hand carelessly and calling up a nearly effortless Fire spell. "Hope you like it hot," she teased as the flames caught on his cloak.   
  
He slipped out of it with watery grace that only a vampire could match. "Actually, no," he said a feral smile playing across his face. He was enjoying himself. That fit in with what Rikku had heard about him. He preferred his victims to put up a fight. He enjoyed it more that way, or so the rumors said.  
  
Rikku didn't hesitate. As soon as his cloak was moving from his body, she shot foreword. The fingers on her right hand curved into a tight fist, pressing into the sensor pad in the palm of her hand. Three deadly claws sprang out of their sheath on top of her hand. Each of them was curved and sharpened to the point where she could slice through metal like a hot knife through butter. Deadly four inch long blades of destruction.  
  
She aimed a punch for his head, watching in satisfaction as he pulled away with a torrent of stolen crimson blood seeping from three deep punctures above his left eye. "Bitch," he hissed again, his own hands forming into claws as she came in for another attack.  
  
He charged at her, arm swinging widely in a blow meant to shred her throat. She drove her fist upwards, under his rib cage; searching for his heart. His claws racked across her chest in slashing fashion.   
  
Rikku allowed herself to fall backwards, letting his own weight drive her clawed fist into his chest. Practice told her when she had found his heart and she twisted her fist just right to halt it's beating.  
  
The weight over her body became heavier as life whooshed from the vampire's body. "Not bad," he attempted to say, his voice slurred as the rigors of true death set in.   
  
"Not good either," Rikku replied, pushing him off of her as the light in his red eyes faded and his body vanished. "I'm usually neater then that." She fingered the fabric covering her breasts, and winced at the cuts adorning her skin. They were deep and looked painful.  
  
She supposed, as she began to methodically clean her weapon of the vampire's blood, that the wound would be worse later. 'Later' was when the wound had to be purified, a painful progress that involved a lot of Holy Water. Judging by the depths of the wounds, she was going to have to apply it for a long period of time. Briefly, she considered going to visit Yuna.  
  
The ex-summoner would help her clean the vampire fiend introduced wounds and purify them. Hell, she'd even get Wakka and Kimihri to hold her thrashing body down. She wouldn't have to suffer in silence by herself; or rather, she wouldn't be the only one who had to hear her screams. But Yuna would worry about her twice as much and that wasn't what she wanted. And she'd be home for a brief while, safe from her nightmares, which was what she wanted, but couldn't have. Not until the fiends were gone. Not until the people were safe.  
  
Shortly after Sin's defeat, long unnoticed deaths were brought to the public's attention. Bodies were found drained off all blood, neat puncture marks marring their necks. That was the work of vampires. Others were found half eaten and ripped apart as if a savage beast had torn through them. Those were the victims of the werewolves. And then the victims of the witches and sorceress were found in various places, their bodies drained off life and mummified - most times, but not always.  
  
Yuna, the newly elected president of Spira, had called upon her friends to combat the menace. But Wakka and Lulu were expecting a child and neither wished to face the possibility of losing each other. Kimihri had declined, opting instead to stay at Yuna's side and protect her from any who might wish her harm. That had left the only remaining guardian, Rikku.  
  
She reflected wryly, that she could have turned Yuna down. She could still be bouncing around Luca, learning to play blitzball and live in a world without Sin, danger, and death. But that wasn't what she had chosen. She had picked a different path and couldn't turn back now.  
  
She exited the old house, setting it ablaze with Fira. The wood crackled warmly and a thick black smoke began to gather over the house. She stood close to the blaze, feeling the heat on her body and smelling the putrid scent of burning flesh from inside. All of the vampire's recent victims - twenty-two in number - were inside with it's corpse.   
  
She had learned the hard way how to treat the dead of a vampire. To keep them from rising with the death of their master, she took their heads, hearts, and burned them to cinders. Not even a particle of bone would survive the blaze that she had planned.  
  
The villagers, gathered fearfully behind her and in the distance, were watching her. She could feel their stares on her back, burning her as much as the heat from the house was blistering her face. She sighed and turned around.   
  
"It had to be done, you know," she called out. "If I didn't, they'd come back...." she let her voice trail off.   
  
Being a Fiend Hunter / Vampire Hunter was an thankless job. No one cared that they were no longer being attacker and preyed upon like animals. They resented her for forbidding proper Sendings. "The dead," they argued, "Should rest in the Farplane." They didn't understand that vampire, witch, and werewolf victims couldn't access the Farplane. They automatically became.....tainted and in many ways, evil.  
  
She had learned the hard way what happened when you tried to Send them. They rose with the power of their murderers coursing through their veins. However, unlike their murderers, they were unable to think. They were driven by a mindless desire to kill. They became zombies of the highest caliber and attacked with mindless persistence. She had nearly died the first time. The rest of the town hadn't survived.   
  
She glanced sidelong at the fire, casting another Fira spell to keep in blazing brightly. "Sorry," she murmured, resisting the urge to lie and tell them that they would go to the Farplane after they were burned.   
  
The people gradually cleared out. The house continued to burn merrily. The sky grew red with the coming of dawn, an event that Rikku was learning to cherish more and more. For whatever reason, most of the fiends she hunted didn't surface in the daylight hours. They waited for the dark depths of the night to seep across the land, soaking into the very essence of everything.   
  
It was a nice sunrise, Rikku supposed. The rose colored hues gathered slowly on the horizon, turning the sky a brightening shade of red - almost crimson, the color of blood. Then it lightened, shifting from red to violet blue and finally to an indigo color with a blazing golden orb hanging low on the horizon.  
  
She put her hand over her breast, feeling the cuts for depth once more. The vampire had been one of the most talented that she had encountered yet; although the number one spot was still occupied by her first vamp. He had been the only one to hold her up with injuries for more then a day.......He had been the only one to escape from her silver claws.  
  
She had laid in bed for a month after his attack recovering from multiple bite wounds and blood loss. Recovering from the Holy Water baths that had been necessary. She hadn't thought that she was going to survive that fight. In fact, she knew that she wouldn't have survived if not for the first glimmers of sunlight striking his poised body.   
  
"Ah, sweet sunlight," she murmured gratefully. She pushed her hair away from her face, feeling the jagged scar that ran into her hairline. She had gotten that wound from him as well.  
  
The house was finally burned beyond recognition. The flames had all smoldered and died. The bodies had been burnt to nothingness. She turned away and slipped out of the village, not wanting to talk it's people.  
  
A couple of particularly brave fiends attacked her on the road back to her vehicle. She put them out of their misery with practiced ease, reflecting that at one point they would have given her a run for her money. "Just not good enough anymore," she told the last one as she boarded her single passenger aircraft.   
  
Painted in a vibrant green, it had the words, "Little Guardian," written on the side in silver paint. It had been a gift from Yuna and Cid, her father. It was serving her well, in spite of the disliked name.  
  
She banged open a small compartment, pulling out a thick roll of gauze to stop the bleeding on her chest. Then she soaked it thoroughly in Holy Water and stripped off her shirt.  
  
"I'm sorry!" she heard a guy apologize instantly.  
  
She whirled, forgetting about covering herself and falling into a fighting stance. She hadn't heard anyone approaching and that couldn't be a good sign. She closed her hands - both hands - letting two sets of claws snap into position. "What do you want?" she demanded.  
  
"You to put your shirt on," the young man responded. He had one arm pulled across his face, covering his eyes completely and his back was turned to her. "And once you've done that, I wouldn't mind if you gave me directions...."  
  
Rikku didn't relax her guard at all. "Who are you?" she demanded, not shifting from her stance in the slightest bit.  
  
The man turned, obviously assuming that she had gotten dressed. Instantly his face turned crimson as blood was pumped to it in a rush. "I'm so sorry, I thought that you had gotten dressed!" he apologized quickly. He had turned his back to her and had both arms over his face now.  
  
Rikku almost relaxed. He was an attractive young man. Midnight black hair spilled loosely down his back, his shorter bangs pushed up by a crimson headband. His eyes looked to be a dark brown, but instead of being warm and inviting, they had a dark and mysterious feel to them. He looked frail and unable to hurt anyone, but at the same time, she got a spooked feeling in the pit of her stomach that was similar to her danger alert for vampires.  
  
"Turn around and smile," she order stiffly.  
  
".....Are you dressed...? he asked with equal stiffness. His voice muted slightly by the high red front to his cloak.   
  
"No, just do it," Rikku reordered. "Or I'll be forced to attack."  
  
".......attack?" he questioned.   
  
Rikku nodded her head. "Yeah, attack. You sent my danger alarms into orbit and..."  
  
"Ah, did I startle you when I arrived?" he asked. "They is no need to fear me - "  
  
"Who says I'm afraid?" Rikku shot back.  
  
"And turning and smiling will prove what to you?" the young man asked. He ignored her question and acted like she had never even posed it. He knew as clearly as she did that she was frightened.  
  
"That you're human," Rikku said firmly.  
  
"Am I?" he asked. "That's an interesting.......assumption."  
  
Rikku felt a surge of panic and triumph. On one hand, she had correctly assumed that he was a baddie - probably a vampire by the looks of things - but he was also walking around during the daylight hours. She needed to be able to relax during the day, but if they could do what they wanted in sunlight, then she would have to be on guard all the time.  
  
"Vampire scum," she accused. "How can - "  
  
He sighed heavily and spun around. "I'd appreciate it if you put your shirt on," he said, dropping a silver rifle to the ground. "I'm not here to hurt you and......" his voice trailed off. When he began to speak again, his voice was thick with amusement. "I'm not a vampire."  
  
Rikku didn't believe him for a second. She smashed herself into his body, claws digging into his shoulder while her left hand attempted to prove the point that he was a vampire. She slipped three fingers into his mouth, probing his incisors and waiting for the fangs to grow.  
  
She had made the fatal mistake of assuming someone was a vampire before. The man had died and turned out to be a regular human playing a joke. She had vowed never to make the same mistake again.  
  
Before she killed, she always knew what species she victim was. For vampires - most of them flaunted what they were - the rest were unable to resist that pull of blood. She had cut her fingers on her claws before pushing them into the young man's mouth.   
  
Fangs didn't grow. They should have.   
  
Rikku closed her green eyes and took a deep breath. The human lying under her compact form wasn't moving. Apparently he had decided to wait until she was finished molesting him before he said anything.  
  
She stood up, offering him a hand. "Sorry, I've had a rough night," she apologized and explained at the same time.   
  
"I can see that," the man responded. "Here, I know a couple curative spells. Allow me to cure you - "  
  
"NO!" Rikku exclaimed sharply, casting Reflect to make sure any attempts to heal her injured body didn't occur.   
  
He looked alarmed at her sudden outburst, but didn't push the matter. "Very well, why not?" he inquired.  
  
"Vampire wounds," she said, turning away from him as her half nudity became apparent. Now it was her turn to get crimson in the face. "They need to be cleaned before I can heal them completely."  
  
"I see," the young man said. "Cure," he added softly. She felt the familiar flare of magic and whirled around, eyes wild.   
  
"What are you doing?" she snapped. "I thought that I just - "  
  
He shook his head slightly. "That will be enough for today, Miss......" his voice trailed off in search of her name. When she didn't supply it, he picked up her discarded Holy Water soaked gauze and began to wrap it tightly around her chest. "......Vincent Valentine.....I used to be....." he shook his head slightly. "Just my name will do," he murmured more for his benefit then hers.   
  
Rikku didn't respond. She was hissing as the normally soothing water came in contact with her enflamed breasts. Like acid, it burned at the contaminated skin. She moaned softly in suppressed agony. The wound was definitely going to be hell to treat. She tried to imagine herself pouring and scrubbing the purifying liquid and winced again.  
  
Then she felt herself get picked up. "Hey!" she protested in surprise. "Valentine, was it? Stop....er.....put me down!" She felt slightly confused at being picked up by him after deciding that he wasn't a threat. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded.  
  
Silence greeted her demand.   
  
"I'm only going to warn you once that you don't - "  
  
"Sssh," Vincent said quietly. "You're wounds need to be treated before they get infected."  
  
"Then put me down so I can treat them," Rikku hissed. "I don't need to be carried around and treated like an injured - "  
  
"Don't need?" Vincent echoed. "Or.....don't want?" He set her down by a stream and dipped her into the water. "And you're the one who said you were injured."  
  
Rikku looked away. "I don't need any hel-"  
  
"And I won't tell anyone when you scream," Vincent interjected. "You don't have to been a tough as nails vampire slayer for seven minutes. Then, when your body is purified, you can be as self-righteous as you want. I won't tell a soul. I promise."  
  
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Author's notes;I started this around Halloween. Does anyone like it?  
  
Thanks for reading,  
  
Kissa-chan 


	2. Act II

Standard disclaimers apply.  
  
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She swept the tears of pain away from her face with the back of her hand. Holy Water burned worse then any fire. It stung worse then thunder. It saturated her skin, sizzling loudly as it made the enflamed skin spit out impurity.  
  
"....Relax," Vincent suggested softly. One long fingered hands were gently holding her to the grassy forest floor while he poured the foul white liquid into the gashes on her chest.   
  
Rikku tried to glare at him through a haze of pain. "You try and relax!" she snapped hotly. "It burns!" She closed her eyes and let a shaky breath out as he started scrubbing at the wound. "It burns," she repeated softly. She felt two trails of warmth blazing down her cheeks. Tears of pain.   
  
"...shall I stop for a while?" Vincent asked.  
  
She shook her head quickly. "No, please continue. Don't.... drag it out."  
  
Vincent stared at her silently for a long moment. "Very well," he said. "I shall." He picked up a second bottle of Holy Water and unscrewed the cork. He didn't mention any pain involved in the treatment. She already knew how much it hurt judging by the various scars healing on her body.   
  
They had an angry red tinge to them. It was a little known side effect of holy water treatment. Vincent clearly recalled the long scar on his back that had been treated with Holy Water. It wasn't really an experience that you would want to repeat. He had been very careful around vampire-type monsters after that....  
  
It had happened while he was still with the Turks. On his first mission, he had gotten separated from the others. A tall beautiful woman had approached him seductively. He really hadn't known any better then to follow her. He had nearly died and in the end, he wished that he had. He really wished that he had when the wound was purified by Holy Water.  
  
He remembered screaming and twisting in agony. The girl he was helping was lying completely still under his firm grip. She wasn't displaying any sign of being hurt by the cleansing process.  
  
But her face was flushed and her lips were held in a tight grimace. She was in pain. And all that he could do to help was to make it hurt faster and more. He sighed and held the bottle directly over the wound, emptying all of its contents onto her wounds. Then he started scrubbing.  
  
She passed out.  
  
When she woke, her shirt was firmly in place. Judging by the stiffness of her movement, she was also wrapped tightly with stiff cloth. "....Vincent?" she asked. She had been out for a long time. Maybe too long. She was still in an unsafe area.   
  
Overhead, the moon shone it's bright light down in a silvery white curtain. It sparkled on the small river and played across her skin. "Vincent!" she called out in more demanding tones. There was always a chance that he had left.  
  
".....I'm here," came the soft response.   
  
Rikku started and almost smiled. "Didn't see you," she said gruffly. "This area isn't safe. I'll escort you to the nearest town and you can travel from there."  
  
"There's no need for that," Vincent said smoothly. "I'm planning on -"  
  
"Being escorted to the nearest town," Rikku repeated with a frown. "It's the least I can do in return for your help earlier. Not to mention my attack on you....."  
  
  
  
Vincent inclined his head slightly in her direction. "....Thank-you for the offer. Shall we go?"  
  
Rikku felt surprise ripple through her. "You're giving in?" she asked incredulously. "But I thought that ...... nevermind. Let's go." She shook her head at herself. How long had it been since she had been caught off guard?  
  
She glanced at the Little Guardian, debating what type of equipment she should take with her. For the upcoming trek through the darkness, it would be best to be thoroughly prepared. She banged the hatch open, pulling out a interesting set of claws. Unlike her Vampire Claws - one of which she always wore - these were her regular claws.  
  
They had the same palm pressure trigger, but the blade that emerged from them was a lot different. It's sharpened claws were made out of different materials. One of them was iron, which was the only way to kill a true witch. The middle one was the same as her Vampire Claws - vitae, the wood of life - the only wood that didn't splinter when she staked the vampires. The last claw was the prettiest, being made out of pure silver for the soul purpose of executing vampires.  
  
Whenever she didn't know what she might encounter, she wore it.  
  
"What kind of clips do you have for your gun?" she asked. "Silver? Iron? Wood? Regular?" She didn't look at him as she spoke, but her hands were slipping through a collection of gun clips.   
  
".......they are .... regular," Vincent said, blowing air out of his mouth in slight frustration. "But as I said, I really don't need an escort. I'm accepting only to placate you."  
  
"I know," Rikku said with a grimace. She handed him a handful of carefully organized clips. "Take these. The ones with the green tabs are vitae, the blue tabs are silver, and the pink tabs are iron. I'll instruct you in which ones to add should we be attacked."  
  
Vincent didn't answer. He had a feeling that she wouldn't listen anyway. He shook his head and followed after her.  
  
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A rustling in the bushes, stilled the slender form walking in front of him again. Vincent remained motionless, allowing her to 'scout' the danger level. He already knew that it was nothing more then a squirrel, but it was pointless to tell her that. She didn't listen to people. She listened to her instincts, which, he reflected were probably screaming, "BETTER SAFE THEN SORRY!"  
  
She body relaxed minuscule. "A squirrel," she whispered for his benefit.  
  
  
  
He left out that he had already devised that. "Are we being too cautious?" he asked softly. "Being a Vampire Slayer cannot be easy on you....."  
  
"Interesting point. But how did you know I was a Vampire Slayer?" Rikku asked suspiciously. She turned her head, locking her sky darkened orbs onto his eyes. "How did you devise -"  
  
Vincent felt a surge of irritation. She was obviously suspecting him of some sort of wrong doing at the moment. "You cut your finger and pushed it into my mouth, probing my incisors. Checking for fangs, I would think. That coupled with your wooden claws...."  
  
She turned away, accepting his explanation as the truth. She didn't tell him to start moving. She just started through the forest trail again, making mince meat out of any fiend that attacked.   
  
For the rest of the journey, she didn't say anything. But when they arrived on the outskirts of the sizable town, she stopped and turned toward him. "It's almost morning."  
  
Vincent walked past her. He was thinking that she was getting lost in her job. She was becoming like he had been when he was with he Turks. Dutiful and dangerous, a deadly combination. But worse was the absence of life involved. She was living, she was existing. There had to be some way to explain that to her.  
  
"Rikku!" he heard someone exclaim. A young lady with coppery curls raced up to her. "I was just on my way to Hydra to see you. I have some news on ....... a famous vampire."  
  
Vincent watched her face pale slightly and a fine trembling began to start in her body. She was scared. ".......Miss Rikku..." he began softly.  
  
"Is it Shyster?" Rikku asked.   
  
The copper haired girl nodded her head. "Yes, it is. I have the information right here. He's been located past Mt. Gagazet, in the ruins of Zanarkand."  
  
"Kill count?" Her voice held no emotion. She could have been asking anything and the dead tone in her voice wouldn't have wavered - much. Vincent found it disturbing. Very disturbing.  
  
"Three teenage girls who were hiking to Zanarkand. A fourth - boy - got away with the description." The coppery haired girl paused. "But what about the vamp. in -"  
  
"He's dead, Mori."  
  
Mori smiled slightly. "Wow! Already, you were just given the call yesterday. Didn't you evaluate the situation?"  
  
Rikku almost shrugged. "If I had, more people would have died." And I might have backed out in fear, she added to herself. Staying honest with herself was one of her goals in life.... that is, if she still had a life.  
  
She pivoted gracefully towards Vincent and inclined her head slightly to him. "Thank-you for your earlier assistance. "Now I must depart." She moved quickly, flowing into the predawn darkness. A shadow moving detached from everything around her.   
  
Vincent paused and then slipped after her, leaving Mori standing alone. Rikku was moving rapidly now, melting through the shadows in an invisible flow. He could barely keep up with her.   
  
He arrived in the small clearing just as she stopped. She was sweating slightly, and trembling furiously.   
  
***********************  
  
Death was all that remained. Shyster, her first vampire, represented death to her. She couldn't win against him. She could feel that in her soul. She had known from the moment that her swirled green eyes had fallen on him. He would kill her.  
  
***********memories*************  
  
He walked towards her with a smile on his supernatural handsome face. "They send a child," his smooth voice slipped across her skin like silk. He laughed, the sound saturating every pore in her body until she felt like she would burst. "They send you to death," he promised.  
  
Then he vanished. She panicked and cast Mighty Guard, still unaware how to deal with vampires.... or at least that was the impression she wanted to convey. She knew what would work and what wouldn't work. She had studied for many hours, practiced for too long to make such a simple mistake.   
  
She had an actual stake in her hand, held along her leg in what she hoped was an unnoticeable fashion. "They sent me to deal death," she corrected the vampire's last phrase out loud. "Your death."  
  
"You promise me death?" she heard his mocking reply. "Then give it to me." He trailed his fingers up her spine, causing her to whirl in alarm. He wasn't behind her anymore. "And yet, you hesitated...... perhaps it is wisest if I make things more.... sporting."  
  
"More sporting?" Rikku inquired, adrenaline was pumping through her body, making her anxious to engage the enemy. She turned slow circles, eyes taking in everything.  
  
"You're armed. Perhaps I should be as well?" Shyster murmured in her ear. "But then death doesn't hold back hoping its victims are ready. So I won't either." He bit her neck, teeth pricking against her skin like needles.  
  
To Rikku it was the best thing that could have happened. She still didn't know how much Holy Water burned - all she knew was that the wounds could be cleaned. And the vampire had just given up his greatest advantage - invisibility. She couldn't hit what she couldn't see. But now she knew where he was.  
  
She readjusted her grip on the wooden stake and thrust it around and up, twisting her body as she did so. His teeth cut twin ribbons of pain as they were drawn across the side of her throat, but she ignored that pain and shoved the stake upwards towards his heart.  
  
It penetrated, but not all the way. Then it splintered in her hands, exploding outward with unknown power and he struck her hard against the side of her face. She flew across the room and stuck the wall with enough force to leave a dent. Then she fell.  
  
It wasn't anywhere as graceful as sliding down the wall. She crumpled, flopping into a daze heap of Al Bhed on the floor. She tried to get up, but he was on her right away, smashing her head into the floorboards as his fingers tightened around her neck. "Unexpected, but pleasant. I've never been injured by a hunter before."  
  
Rikku tried to breath around the crushing grasp on her throat. He whipped her head into the floor again, dazing her further. She felt something warm trickling along her scalp and it felt enflamed.   
  
He drove his knee into her stomach forcefully expelling what air remained in her body. "I think you deserve an award," he whispered softly against her mouth. "Eternal life ...... a damned life such as I have ...... should be fun, don't you think?"  
  
He bit her again, releasing his hold on her neck and simply drinking her blood.  
  
Rikku fought against the red haze surrounding her vision. Her fingers searched out in both directions, finding various objects on the floor and finally, a splinter the size of her hand. She clenched it tightly, planning on driving it through his heart if at all possible.  
  
Then he reared back, mouth smeared with her blood. "Now I'm going to give you my blood and make you like me." He had drawn a nail across his throat, causing blood to swell. Then he leaned foreword and she struck.  
  
She shoved the splinter through his right eye and then -  
  
Dawn came. Shyster left. And the part of her that was still scared of him went to sleep, leaving her hard against pain. And steeled against fate. She was going to die. It was only a matter of when it happened.  
  
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Thanks for reading,  
  
Kissa-chan 


	3. Act III

Standard disclaimers apply.  
  
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The Little Guardian lifted lightly from the ground, ascending into the clouds smoothly. Rikku, seated stonily in the single seat, didn't notice much of anything on the brief trip to Mt. Gagazet. She was alone, lost in the tangled web of thoughts, fears, and dreams.  
  
The trip passed in a blur, leaving barely any time to worry about Shyster. Touching down in the middle of Zanarkand's ruins, she glanced around in an appraising fashion. It was nothing more then a ghost town. Ruined buildings crumbling into further disrepair, scraggly plants struggling for life in the darkened city.  
  
If there really was any such place, Zanarkand was the city of the dead. Spirits roamed as free as fiends in the destroyed streets. Memories took shape with the help of pyreflies, calling up images of people who had long been dead. Killed in a meaningless struggle to destroy Sin. Or perhaps they had been killed by fiends, never getting a chance to sacrifice themselves for the continued false hope of Spira.  
  
Rikku suppressed her thoughts on the city quickly. It was at the top of her list of places she never wished to visit. It had been where everything had happened...... where she had witnessed Auron's death. And somewhere in the crumbling city was a vampire that embodied the very meaning of fear in her soul.  
  
She trembled slightly when she got out of the Little Guardian. The air felt heavier than it had with her friends. It felt oppressive and held a scent that she now recognized as death. A lot of people had died in Zanarkand. So many that their lingering presence tinged the air with death. It all felt rather ominous.  
  
She started walking, her boots scuffing against the dirty stone path, knocking aside the stray rock. Her fingers nervously tapped against the pressure points on her claws, almost willing them to emerge. She would be ready when the time for combat came.  
  
She was listening so hard for a subtle sound indicating a vampire that she almost missed the slight crunch of gravel behind her. Her heart caught in her throat and she spun sharply, claws snapping into place. They slashed through thin air and pyre lit darkness.  
  
"Heh, heh," she managed to laugh slightly. She rotated her shoulders, willing them to loosen up without success. She was too tense. She had to let go of her fear or it would consume her as surely as Shyster meant to consume her blood.   
  
She started towards the ruins of the Blitzball Stadium. Ironically, the heart of Zanarkand from 1,000 years ago was still the same today. Only the Fayth had resided there along with Lady Yunalesca. It was a place of many hopeful good-byes. Or rather, it had been. Currently she suspected it was the lair of her enemy.  
  
Slowly, she drew closer, watching the pyreflies dance around the dome in an endless stream of color. For several long moment - what felt like eternity - she stood, staring up towards the slowly darkening sky.   
  
Her timing, as usual, was bad. She had managed to arrive at Shyster's lair at dusk. He was probably waking now, watching her from some hidden viewpoint. He had an advantage in the dark.  
  
She closed her green eyes, allowing a tremor to course through her body. She rotated her neck slowly, eyes still closed. She bent down, scraping her knuckles across the broken stone she was standing on.  
  
Then she straightened. "All right, Shyster, here I come," she said, her voice firm and without any sign of emotion. She allowed a smile to cross her face, knowing that it wasn't a particularly nice smile. A look that was completely unlike anything she had ever shown before.  
  
She felt oddly calm now that she was at the doors. Her heart beat normally, if not slightly slower then usual. Her muscles felt loose and silken. She felt fast and strong. Adrenaline seeped out of her body along with tension. She felt cold as ice and knew that she was in top form. Nothing could break her out of the shell she had created for herself. Her walls of ice were firmly encased around her old self.   
  
With an oddly emotionless expression on her face, she walked into the Blitzball Stadium.  
  
*****************************  
  
Fiery red eyes followed her progress into the building with a regretful look. Vincent didn't know why, but he felt as if he had to stop her somehow. Or at least make sure that she was all right during her fight with the vampire. She was unstable, sealing herself away and letting her body trickle through the motions of living.  
  
She had made death her life. Living wasn't something that she thought of anymore. Her thoughts resided in those who killed and she took it upon herself to slay them. It was a noble, but empty existence.  
  
Vincent didn't like it.  
  
But he couldn't understand why. She had every right to do what she wished with her life. It wasn't any concern of his. She was certainly old enough to make up her own mind. She was talented and beautiful; a young lady with a gradually freezing attitude and an icy expression.   
  
She wasn't uncertain. She knew what she was doing and felt confident about it even if she was frightened. And she was scared. But then wasn't fear part of fighting stronger people? Hadn't he felt a brief twinge of fear when confronting Sephiroth? Or had he already sealed himself away from those feelings?  
  
He found himself moving foreword soundlessly, following her deep into the towering ruin.   
  
He felt the oppressive nature of the building. Darkness and despair were seeped into every crumbling wall and broken floor. Floating lights - pyreflies - flirted everywhere, bringing images of those long dead to the surface. Playing out memories of the last moments of far too many peoples lives.   
  
It was an unkind place.  
  
Then images of a group of people strolled through him. He blinked and found himself starring at a young blond girl with a hesitant smile on her face, and a cheerful bounce to her step.  
  
**************************************  
  
She brushed past a spiderweb, and stood before the Cloister of trials. Shyster was probably in the room beyond the Chamber of the Fayth. In Yunalesca's chambers, the place where they had thrown off their false hope. For a moment, everything felt so close to that time.   
  
The uncertainty going in. The fear for Yuna's fate that had coursed through her. She still hadn't thought of anything and they were all out of time. She had seen a similar despair playing through Tidus's ocean blue eyes, but a determination. He hadn't given up yet. He hadn't given up throughout Yuna's Pilgrimage.  
  
She stepped on the initial platform, watching as a diagram appeared on the screen directly in front of her. Obviously the trials had reset themselves. She made her way through them rapidly, having already memorized the pattern.   
  
Sometimes she could remember things so clearly. All the trials she had been through..... the final battle with Sin and Yu Yevon...... battling fiends in the Thunder Plains..... all of that seemed to come back with life like images in her sleep.   
  
It was the rest that she couldn't recall. It was a blitz games that Tidus had played along their way to Zanarkand...... the chocobo races..... catching cauctors in the dessert..... the stuff that really mattered. She couldn't remember the people she knew clearly anymore. Just the monsters and the battles. Just the fights and loneliness now that she fought alone.  
  
But did it really matter?  
  
She completed the trial and stepped onto the platform heading towards the Chamber of the Fayth. Shyster was waiting. He had to know that she was coming. He was counting on it.  
  
The room was the same as before. An empty statue rested beneath a heavy glass plate. She didn't hesitate anymore. Her memories were fuzzy and she didn't have time to review them. She strolled to the door leading to Yunalesca's chambers, refusing to hurry to her death. It would come soon enough on it's own.  
  
Then, with a green flash of light, she was through the door.  
  
********************************************  
  
Author's notes;Actually, I usually don't know what to say after I finish a chapter.   
  
There isn't really much of anything to say except; thank-you! Everyone who reviewed..... and more then that..... everyone who read this story and loved it..... I really appreciate your support. Please keep reading.  
  
Thanks for reading,  
  
Kissa-chan 


	4. Act VI

Standard disclaimers apply.  
  
*********************  
  
The light of the moon never shone in the chambers beyond the empty Fayth statue. And infinity seemed to stretch of into forever. Stars glittered with endlessly bright light, remaining diamond bright jewels against the inky black depths of the night. Here and there a couple of plants struggled for life, choked out by the death and darkness of Zanarkand.  
  
Rikku entered the chamber with a swing in her step. "Shyster!" she called out cheerfully. "I'm here..." her voice trailed off and she looked around carefully. "I'm here to KILL you!"  
  
A low chuckle met her threat, creeping along her spine and raising the fine hairs on her arms. Rikku resisted the urge to rub her arms in the sudden chill that seemed to permeate the musty air. That would be seen as a weakness, and she couldn't afford to give in to anything.  
  
"I fear your -"  
  
"Ah, yes...fear..." Rikku interrupted. Her finger bellies were tapping against the trigger point in her claws. "Are you going to stay hidden? Do I have to pursue you again?" She adopted a silken and relaxed posture. "Will you flee like a coward... again?"  
  
On cue with her words, Shyster stepped from the shadows. "Little one -"  
  
"Implying what?" Rikku challenged. She couldn't afford to let him talk her down from her good form. She had seen how easily ones confidence could wan in the face of a vampire's words, and had no intention of allowing the same thing to happen to her.  
  
"What does it matter?" Shyster asked. "You have come to become my daughter -"  
  
"That's a lie!" Rikku spat quickly. Even interrupting him every time he started speaking wasn't working. She could feel her form start to crumble. She needed to take action.   
  
Her fingers tightened on the claws, snapping out the wooden points on one hand and then mixed points on the other. She wasn't sure why she had opted to wear a mixed claw along with her Vampire Claw. She wasn't planning on fighting any werewolves or witches... ever again....  
  
"And the youth moves towards haste," Shyster said. "But to put so much thought behind my death." He had his hands folded in front of his stomach, taking no visible aggressive stance. "And carelessly, you shall throw your life -"  
  
"Your life away!" Rikku completed for him. Her body gliding effortlessly through the shifting shadows. Her swirled Al Bhed eyes were locked firmly on Shyster, she wouldn't let anything interrupt her concentration.   
  
His image... flickered. Like a recording with a scratch. For a moment it wasn't there at all. Rikku spun from the image, dropping towards the ground to present a smaller target. She felt a blast of cold air race by her left ear and reached up, catching hold of a silk and lace shirt. Using the foreword momentum from his lunge, Rikku whipped shyster of her head in a perfect flip.   
  
Almost as soon as he hit the ground, Shyster was getting back to his feet, moving his body out of range of Rikku's deadly claws. He sidestepped to the right, attempting to off-balance her foreword lunge.   
  
Rikku abandoned hurting him with her claws and dropped to the balls of her feet, kicking out one leg and whipping it towards his foot in an effort to keep him off balance. Then, as he leapt nimbly into the air to avoid her footsweep, she pushed herself towards him. bunching her legs behind her, she tore the corner of one claw into his arm, drawing first blood.  
  
Shyster moved back, adopting a more relaxed posture. Then he hissed. "This is Besaid silk!" he snarled. He poked at the bloody hole in the sleeve of his shirt with a furious expression on his face.  
  
"Don't wear your Sunday best for a mud flinging competition!" Rikku suggested.  
  
"I wasn't aware that we were flinging... mud," Shyster's voice came back towards her with oily smoothness.  
  
Rikku smiled coldly. "You're absolutely right. We're dealing in death, aren't we? We're not little children playing with mud - we're predators playing with death."  
  
"Maybe I'll just kill you," Shyster snapped. "You're starting to get on my nerves." He vanished, claws racking across Rikku's shoulder. "You will know pain before I finish with you. I shalln't kill you slowly."  
  
"Because you won't kill me at all. I'm the one who is going to win this time, Shyster. This time you'll loose more then an eye."  
  
"That's right, I owe you my vision in one eye, don't I?" Shyster hissed. "You have caused me much grief mortal."  
  
"And there's plenty more to be had," Rikku acknowledged.  
  
****************************  
  
It wasn't her. The blond girl he was following - the pyrefly memory - it couldn't possibly be Rikku. She was too different. She smiled easily and bounced when she walked. She laughed easily and spook with a bright gleam in her emerald green eyes.   
  
She was clearly the most bouncy thing in the group of people Vincent was watching travel through the ruined dome.   
  
And the others called her Rikku.  
  
Was this why he had to find her? So he could better understand how someone could change so much? How she could go from Miss bounces-a-lot to, Miss too-tough-to-cry? He stopped following the image, raising one hand to his head, covering his crimson eyes. "...I don't understand..." he announced. As if saying it outloud would make it easier to understand.  
  
He sprang straight up, landing on the second level of the ruins. Time was short. By now, Rikku was probably already confronting her enemy. He couldn't really afford to wonder about her one eighty personality change.  
  
He crossed to the end of a passage and stepped into a small room with a screen on the far wall. Curious, he stepped foreword. A soft rumble behind him alerted him to the absence of turning back now. A stone wall had dropped down blocking the exit from the Trials. He stepped foreword again and the tile beneath his feet made a slight depression. On the far wall a diagram lit up.  
  
Vincent blinked slowly. It was... a puzzle. He stepped onto another trigger rock, watching as some of the tiles lit up. Within seconds, he had activated the correct codes. He smiled. Puzzles weren't really that difficult. He strolled out of the room and into an even bigger one complete with screen. Suddenly, the puzzle had gotten harder.  
  
Haste kept making him step on the yellow square. That made all the others turn back to regular gray and forced him to start over again. Rikku was in trouble, he could feel it suddenly. She might be holding her own, but it wouldn't really matter because she couldn't win. He stepped on the yellow square again.  
  
"Relax..." he heard a man's voice say. "Your too impatient."  
  
"I'm sick of these trials!" another man's voice snarled. "I just want to get this over with -"  
  
"Then let me do the trials!" a man dressed in red snapped. He had a sake jug at his hip and long back hair pulled back in a severe ponytail. He also was walking purposefully towards all the correct trigger stones.   
  
Pyrefly images. Vincent found them useful. He followed the crimson robed man, activating the correct combinations as he went. A click sounded somewhere and a lift rose into the air.  
  
Without hesitation, Vincent stepped towards it. Then a monster sprang up from the center of the hole and barred his path.   
  
*******************************  
  
She was on her back, Shyter's cold hands around her throat in an ever tightening hold. "Let go...you j....erk!" she choked, managing to gouge him with her Vampire Claw. It left a long crimson trail across the tops of his knuckles, causing him to pull back.  
  
Rikku drew her feet back and kicked him full in the face, rolling to her feet in the same motion. She coughed, trying to get air flowing into her lungs properly again. She blinked and then he was on top of her again, driving her head back into the stone floor.  
  
Stars of agony exploded in her head. The force of him landing on top of her forced the air from her lungs, leaving her gasping for breath again. Her vision slightly splotchy, she started to reorientate herself quickly.  
  
"I don't think so!" Shyster snarled. Seizing her by her shoulders, he whacked her head back into the floor several times in a row. Then, before she could get orientated, he sunk his fangs into her neck. "Yummy!" he announced, pulling back and hauling her to her feet. He pushed her away from him and began to lick her blood off of his face.  
  
Rikku shook her head, knowing that things weren't going so well anymore. Somehow he had gotten under her skin. He had managed to prevent her from thinking clearly and now the fear was back.   
  
She could barely hold a tight fist through the trembling in her arms. Her vision wavered and abandoned her at crucial moments. Her body jerked involuntarily when she needed to be still. And she kept thinking, "I'm going to die," over and over in her mind. And now he was toying with her.  
  
Again and again he came at her. Biting and drinking just a little bit before throwing her back to wallow in her own fear.   
  
"I'm told that when confronted with death... crying helps," he pointed out. Then a strange BANG echoed throughout the room and he looked at her in complete confusion. "What did you do that for?" he laughed.  
  
"D-do w-what?" Rikku stammered, realizing that her voice was trembling. And it wasn't with fatigue. There was real fear in her voice. She was frightened.   
  
"Shoot me, of course," Shyster laughed.  
  
"I..." her voice trailed off. "Shyster, you shithead! I didn't shoot you!" She felt a ghost of a smile tug at her mouth. "You must have shot yourself." She snickered at the thought of her vampire enemy shooting himself. It certainly presented a humorous picture.   
  
"Well it was pointless, you shot me with silver," Shyster pointed out. "And I'm not a shithead. I'm a -" BANG! Another shot rang out, followed by another. BANG! BANG!  
  
Shyster spun, relocating his fierce eyes toward Vincent. "You shot me!" he snarled.   
  
"...Yes... and?" Vincent inquired. He activated the small green orb set in the middle of gun, summoning Ifrit to burn the vampire.  
  
*****************************  
  
Rikku had fallen to her knees. Clearly Shyster wasn't actually shooting himself. That would be too stupid. Then her eyes had drifted towards the entrance. The dark haired young man who had treated her last vampire injuries stood silently taking aim.   
  
He clearly hadn't been listening when she gave him the specialized ammo clips because he was testing each of them out in turn. He had already shot Shyster with lead and silver. By the time that the third shot rang out, his gun was equipped with wooden bullets.  
  
"What are you doing here?" she murmured, aware that he probably didn't here her at all. And wasn't it obvious what he was doing? He was... vanishing and being replaced with... Ifrit? Rikku pulled herself to her feet, watching as the aeon appeared and cast it's Hellfire onto Shyster.  
  
The master vampire hissed and sizzled, roaring about murder and mass destruction. Then the fire faded and pyreflies began to spill from his body. The master vampire was finally dead.  
  
************************************  
  
Vincent walked over to Rikku, noting that she seemed to have passed out. He picked her up gently. "Rikku... are you all right...?" he asked softly. She didn't respond, but that was okay.   
  
He started walking towards the list leading up to the surface. "You're a strange girl," he told her in an off hand fashion.  
  
In timing with his words, her eyes opened. "What?"  
  
"...I saved you..." Vincent said stoically.  
  
"I meant the aeon! You can summon!" she exclaimed, clasping his forearm tightly. "You can really make Ifrit and Shiva and Bahument and -"  
  
"...Odin?" Vincent suggested for another name. "Yes, actually, I can."  
  
Rikku leaned back into his arms. "Vincent... Mr. Valentine... why did you come here?"  
  
Silence met her question. Vincent stopped walking beside the Little Guardian. He set her down and silently began gathering her medical supplies from the compartments. He still couldn't be certain why he had come to save her. But wasn't that the reason that he had come?  
  
"You shot Shyster," Rikku announced. She stifled a giggle. "That wasn't really funny. We were having -"  
  
"...You smiled, Miss Rikku," Vincent said quietly. "I saw you back in the dome. You were different. I think," and he took a deep breath. "I think that you were happy then."  
  
"Not really," Rikku said. "I was scared then. Really scared. But I wasn't alone. Everyone was there with me and..." she let her voice trail off. Thinking too much about the past would make the present unbearable.  
  
"You're never really alone," Vincent told her. "...I would like to stay with you .... for a while at least..."  
  
"Hn?" Rikku murmured. "But what would we do? Shyster... you crisped him, and with his death, the vampire fiends will all vanish to the Farplane. They'll be drawn there by his black soul."  
  
"...We'll think of something," Vincent murmured. "But for now, just rest."  
  
~~~**owari**~~~  
  
******************************************  
  
Author's notes;That's the last chapter. I don't think it ended quite how anyone really wanted except for me. Anyway, as the last chapter, I'd like to thank each and every person who supported this story. I really loved everyone's support and reviews.   
  
Please review this last chapter and tell me how you liked the story overall.   
  
Thanks for reading,  
  
Kissa-chan 


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